Freeview, BBC and Channel 4 trialling recommended viewing lists

Freeview is currently trialling a new service with the BBC and Channel 4 on a recommended recordings service for Freeview+. The idea is that broadcasters will be able recommend lists of similar or related programmes so that the viewer doesn’t miss out.

This could be really useful during a World Cup, Olympic Games or any international sporting event where there’s likely to be plenty of coverage, or during a run of sci-fi programmes, history programmes or a new comedy series.

The BBC and Channel 4 will be able to load predefined lists of programmes, such as food programmes to dramas or documentaries which could then be scheduled to record automatically.

Called ‘Broadcast Record Lists’, the service is very much in the early stages now, with trials concerning the viability of the service and whether or not it could cause interference. If the trials prove succesful we'd very much expect ITV and Channel 5 to get on board as well and perhaps some of the UKTV channels such as Dave.

Broadcast Record Lists won’t be built into any new Freeview+ released anytime soon, but we understand that Freeview is having conversations with manufacturers about this new service right now.

We love the sound of this and are digging around for more details right now. We’ve a hunch that this service will be called something snappier than ‘Broadcast Record Lists’ when it finally launches but right now we’ve not even got anything resembling an ETA.